It’s amazing what a good look in the mirror and a fresh coat of paint can do to revive almost-forgotten projects. On January 29th, the BC Ministry of Education convened a remarkable forum at the Wosk Centre with headline speakers and a gallery of people from business, educational and social interests. The forum was staged […]
Medieval Education Practices Must Evolve, Now!
“Medieval“: pertaining to the Middle or Dark Ages, a period characterized by primitive practices shaped by ill-formed knowledge. Our society has evolved in remarkable ways in my lifetime, inspiring me to believe that human beings just might squeak through to survive another century or millennium. We have extended life expectancies, we have scientifically detailed the […]
‘Prosperous life’ research highlights folly of conventional options
Thanks to info pouring in from the frontiers of neuroscience, psychology and sociology, I’m increasingly aware of the opportunities we have – as parents, educators and advisors – to positively influence the directions of learning and wellness, and particularly among children and youth. To this end, new knowledge we have makes clearer the choices we […]
Look Beyond Education ‘Miracles’ and You’ll See Natural Learning Reflected. SelfDesign, too.
A common subject in this year’s back-to-school stories, as it has been for the past few years, is the ‘Finnish Miracle’. That is, the Finnish education system, made over by government in the 1970s and now considered a startling success, worldwide. To most reviewers, ‘success’ is attributed to the Finnish education system because of the […]
Back to School? Time to Learn Your Way!
The start of September marks back-to-school time across the land (though not quite yet in BC public schools). Legions of kids are walking through school doors for the first time in several months, my daughter among them. This week she is starting her fourth year at university. To all the children and youth re-joining the […]
Leading Workshop at Holistic Learning Conf., Sept. 19-21st
I am now teed up to lead a workshop and breakout session at the ‘Soul of Education‘ conference, scheduled for Sept. 19th – 21st at Southern Oregon University, Ashland, Oregon. Subtitled ‘Nourishing the Soul of Education‘, the conference promises to provide many exciting insights into Holistic Learning. You can find out more about the conference […]
RE – “Urban Legend” that Self-Directed Learning is Effective
Yikes, I just caught up to a paper published last year in Educational Psychologist, “Do Learners Really Know Best? Urban Legends in Education” (link here). In this paper the authors focus on three themes they mark out as “urban legends”: i, that there exists a new generation of “digital natives”, ii, that learners have specific […]
Beware the Jabberwock, ‘er Margaret Wente, on 21st C Learning
Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente doesn’t let the facts get in the way of a hyperbolic rant against 21st Century, Personalized Learning. In a column on June 28th (Brave New World of 21st Century Learning) Ms Wente cherry-picks criticism and PR bumpf to trump up her opposition to the long-overdue movements to remake approaches […]
Social Innovation Week – Let Learning Flourish in Schools
This is Social Innovation Week in Vancouver, with many events planned to stimulate thinking and collaborating about … social innovations (Find out more here). I have an innovative idea to share with SIW in mind, one I perceive as arising with starker irony given the province-wide teachers’ strikes that have also arisen this week. To […]
Daydreaming classed as new disorder – April Fools! (not)
What do Einstein, Nobel prize-winning scientist Barbara McClintock and Sir Isaac Newton have in common, besides being extraordinary scientists? They were diligent daydreamers who intentionally dropped into a state of reverie to enhance their thinking and conceptualizing. And were they alive today, and attending a conventional school, they might be diagnosed with a newly-minted disorder: […]
Michael’s book, 